Latest Gigs/Festival News

Gigs
(Mines Advisory Group* fundraiser) Revenge of the Psychotronic Man, The Shadowcops, Sounds of Swarmi, The Marder - Saturday 21st June, 2pm - Zavvi (free)
Mines Advisory Group* Fundraiser (6 local bands) - Sunday 22nd June, 7pm - Retro Bar (£3)
The Duke Spirit - Monday 29th September - Club Academy (on sale Friday (20th June) at 9am)
Dirty Pretty Things - Tuesday 7th October - Academy 2 (on sale Friday (20th June) at 9am)

Festivals
The Levellers, Blondie and the Australian Pink Floyd Show have been confirmed as headliners for Guilfest in Stoke Park, Guildford (3-6 July) atop a line up which includes British Sea Power, The Damned, From The Jam, Royworld, Zucchero, Dodgy and Kula Shaker.

New Young Pony Club, These New Puritans, Caribou and Holy Fuck have been confirmed to play Loop festival on 16 August in Victoria Gardens, Brighton.

Load. Click. Shoot! are set to play the Last.fm stage on the Sunday at Offset festival (30-31 August) in Hainault Forest Country Park along with The Maccabees.

Johnny Foreigner and Pete & The Pirates have confirmed their appearance at Reading and Leeds this year.

The Ting Tings will be playing the John Peel Tent at Glastonbury on the Friday (27th June) at 5:20pm.

Due to, lead singer, Carl Barat's hospitalisation, Dirty Pretty Things have had to pull out of this Saturday's (21st June) Rock A Field Festival in Luxembourg.


* MAG is a Manchester based de-mining organisation that clears landmines and explosive remnants of war in current and post conflict zones around the world, enabling communities to develop and prosper in a safe environment. Maginternational.org.

Friends Of P

In an effort to raise awareness of Lupus (a disease that causes your body to attack itself and has no cure), Tokyo Police Club have recorded their favourite song to cover, The Rentals' 'Friends of P', which also features as a bonus track on their album. You can stream it at Friendsofp.org/index2.html by clicking the little play symbol on the record player next to "LISTEN". Apparently if you're creative enough, you might be able to figure out a way to download it too. Evidently I am not.

Hospitalised Musicians

Dirty Pretty Things' Carl Barat was admitted to hospital on Tuesday (17th June) morning with stomach pains, which turned out to be acute pancreatitis and may result in him having an operation this weekend. The band have had to postpone the Real Fits fundraiser show at Hackney Round Chapel this Friday, 20th June and should be making decisions about other imminent commitments today.

Dorian Cox of The Long Blondes was rushed to hospital in Sheffield on Monday 9th June and is still in a serious condition. He is improving slowly and the band will be keeping fans updated and passing on any messages they receive, but have had to cancel all their live dates until the end of July.

Bands With Interesting Pictures

The Teenagers have uploaded pictures of things like a very cold looking Sydney harbour, a bag and denim jacket with legs, and bird carcases, from their recent Australian tour at Flickr.com/photos/theteenagers.

Ryan Jarman of The Cribs has posted a short blog at Myspace.com/thecribs basically saying that they're enjoying festival season, but there's also a couple of pictures of lots of sun and flesh.

Making Waves

The best I've had all week.

BORN RUFFIANS
Who?: Luke LaLonde (vocals/guitar), Mitch DeRosier (bass), Steve Hamelin (drums)
Where?: Toronto, Canada
What?: Perky, upbeat pop music
Listen to: Humming Bird [it's hard to beat to be honest]
If you like BORN RUFFIANS, you might like: Run Toto Run

Myspace.com/bornruffians




JOHNNY FLYNN
Who?: Matt Edmonds, Adam Beach, Joe Zeitlin, Lillie Flynn, and Johnny Flynn
Where?: London
What?: Modern and happy sounding country/folk
Listen to: Tickle Me Pink
If you like JOHNNY FLYNN, you might like: Fionn Regan

Myspace.com/johnnyflynn

Copycats Make Noise

This is a clip from Copycats which can only be described as a lot of noise. Perhaps a hint at future recordings.

Lightspeed Champion On Tour (part 2)

Here's part 2 of Lightspeed Champion's video of his American tour antics. It features a backstage folk music performance, some dark footage of an all ages show, a very untidy room and a lot of shaky camera work.

Bands With New Songs

be your own PET have put a new song called 'Becky' up at Myspace.com/beyourownpetmusic. It's actually fairly subdued for them, but it's still about violence and falling out at school and has that shouty chorus.

Every week lately has had us listening to The Courteeners cover various songs, so here's the final instalment.
The Sugababes' 'About You Now' is quite unusual sounding, despite various indie versions of their songs, and is complete with a violin part, though Fray's voice isn't quite as suited to this as it has been many of the previous covers - he seems to be straining a bit towards the end.
Then there's a re-working of the single, 'No You Didn't No You Don't'. It's basically slower and is just Liam Fray accompanied by a piano, but it does manage to sound surprisingly different from the original.
Click on the track names to listen, they open in Windows Media Player.

New Releases

Singles
Cage The Elephant – Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked
Gnarls Barkley – Going On
Infadels - Free Things For Poor People
Jose Gonzales - In Our Nature: Remixes (EP) (12”)
The Kills - Last Day of Magic (7”)
Panic! At The Disco - That Green Gentleman (Things Have Changed)
The Rascals - Freakbeat Phantom [Limited]
The Subways – Alright
White Denim - All You Really Have To Do (7”)[Limited]

Albums
Feeder - Silent Cry
Hot Club De Paris – Live At Dead Lake
The Music – Strength In Numbers
Weezer – Weezer